1. Field of Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to arranging computing assets in a data center.
2. Description of Related Art
Data centers include a large number of computing assets that generate a significant amount of heat. To ensure proper cooling of the computing assets, data centers may arrange the computing assets into a hot aisle/cold aisle layout. In a hot aisle/cold aisle layout, computing assets are placed into equipment racks that are arranged so that the fronts of the racks face each other. An air conditioning unit feeds cold air into an aisle that the rack fronts face to create a cold aisle. The backs of the equipment racks also face each other, creating hot aisles. The air from the hot aisles may be cooled and re-circulated into the cold aisles.
Although the hot aisle/cold aisle layout has become popular in many modern data centers, the hot aisle/cold aisle layout is space inefficient and limits the density of computing assets in the data center. For example, each equipment rack has multiple rack-posts creating gaps between adjacent racks that cannot be filled with computing assets. As another example, each equipment rack includes a large number of fans located along the back or the front of the rack to move air from the cold aisle into the hot aisle. The fans also occupy a significant amount of space that cannot be filled with any computing assets.